democratic strategist steve el mendorf, kerry's deputy campaign manager in '04. how are you? >> good, how are you. >> tell me about why your guy won the debates and lost the election and what that says potentially about this dynamic and this race right now is this. >> i think any challenger has a benefit when they get up on the stage against the president of the united states. the debates level the playing field. they put you on the stage in an equal footing. i think mitt romney comes into the debate with an advantage because of that. i think the question in this race, all campaigns are different and i think in this race, this is very much of a choice election. i think people see very different visions for the future between these two candidates and my guess is, when we get out of the debates they are going to continue to see the two visions and right now they're picking barack obama's vision. i think in 2004, it was more of a referendum on bush and i think ultimately people decided that the referendum they wanteded to stay with the incumbent. i think this election is a littl